Tufted products



Jan. 29, 1963 D. c. COCHRAN 3,075,867

TUFTED PRODUCTS Filed April 24, 1959 I I I I I INVENTOR Dal/Misc? Coca/4w 'l/ms' y 9' 2 ATTORNEYS United States Patent Otfice 3,fi75,8fi7. Patented Jan. 29,1963

3,il75,367 TUFTED PRODUCTS Douglas C. Cochran, Southern Latex Corp, Park St, Austeii, Ga. Filed Apr. 24, 1959, Ser. No. 308,796 1 Claim. (Cl. 156-72) The present invention relates to the production of tufted or pile fabrics, e.g. floor coverings, such as carpets or rugs, having improved dimensional stability, hand, tuft or loop bind and other desirable characteristics.

In the usual preparation of tufted floor coverings, a backing sheet of jute, cotton or equivalent material is utilized. The tufted product is obtained by sewing or passing the tufting yarn, e.g. nylon, rayon or cotton yarn,

systematically back and forth through the backing with the formation of a pile or yarn loops on the top face of the backing. These loops may or may not be cut, as desired. A rubber or resinous coating is generally applied to the opposite side of the backing, i.e. the bottom face thereof, for the purpose of retaining or locking the tufted yarn in position. This also improves to some extent the hand and other characteristics of the finished product.

Tufted products of the above described type have several disadvantages. For one thing, the backing material is normally relatively loosely woven so as to facilitate passage of the tufting yarn therethrough. When latex or other resin binder is applied thereto, there is a tendency for the binder to strike through to the tufted face and give a less attractive product. Attempts to obviate such striking through result in a poorer hand or feel in the finished product and reduced looplock.

Another prior difficulty is caused by the fact that the filling and selvage of the jute or other backing material are not usually squared up. Despite considerable endeavor in this field, it has not been possible to prepare a fully satisfactory tufted floor covering or the like, including, among others, the following desirable characteristics: freedom from Wrinkles or puffs; straight selvages; uniform, controlled widths; maximum dimensional stability with uniformly controlled stretch and shrinkage, optimum loop bind and feel or hand; and maximum tensile strength and resistance to seam or tack slippage.

In an effort to obviate the above disadvantages, various modifications have been suggested. For example, it has been proposed to supplement the jute or cotton backing by laminating thereto a paper-adhesive web or other secondary backing after the tufting operation. However, all of these proposed substitutes, generally speaking, also suffer from one or more of the indicated disadvantages.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide an improved tufted floor covering or like fabric which is free from the abovementioned disadvantages. Another object of the invention is the provision of a tufted fabric which demonstrates improved dimensional stability, hand and loop bind, freedom from binder strike through and other highly desirable characteristics. Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the invention.

Broadly stated, the foregoing and other objects are realized by the provision of a tufted or pile fabric comprising one or more layers of normally self-supporting polymer film as the base member; at least one intermediate layer of fabric, e.g. jute, or other sheet material different from said polymer film but compatible therewith superposed on the base member; and tufting yarn passing back and forth through both the polymer film and the intermediate layer and extending above the intermediate layer to form the tufted surface of the fabric.

The polymer film may be fluxed or reactivated by the application of heat and/ or solvents to provide additional adhesion between the polymer film and the tufting yarn.

The polymer film suitable for use herein may comprise polyethylene or polypropylene of the crystalline or conventional type, polyvinyl chloride, copolymers of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate, polyvinylideue chloride (Saran), polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate (Mylar), copolymers of vinylidene chloride and acrylonitrile, cellulose acetate and the like. Of particular importance herein are polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride, the latter preferably being plasticized with any of the usual plasticizers, e.g. dibutyl phthalate, dioctyl phthalate, tricresyl phosphate, polymeric esters, such as butadieneacrylonitrile elastomeric materials. Usually, for purposes herein, the film thickness may vary from about .002" to 0.02" although other sizes may also be used. As will be appreciated, it is intended that the term filnf as used herein embrace normal film thickness, as well as the somewhat greater thicknesses usually identified as sheetings.

The intermediate layer or layers may comprise nonwoven or woven fabric, preferably woven jute or cotton. However, other materials, e.g. wet strength paper or the like, which are different from the polymer film but compatible therewith, may also be used. For example, the intermediate layer may be a laminate of woven jute fabric and wet strength paper. Desirably, this intermediate layer may be about 5 to 25 times as thick as the polymer film base member although this relationship can be varied.

The tufting yarn may be any of those normally used for this purpose. Thus, for example, cotton, rayon, wool, or nylon yarns, or mixtures thereof, may be used. Mixtures of difierent types of yarns, e.g. wool and nylon blends, or yarns of different sizes and colors may be utilized to give pattern effects as may be desired.

The use of the polymer film base member, as described herein, eliminates the necessity of applying the customary backing of latex or resinous binder, thus effectively obviating the possibility of binder strike through. The polymer film tends to close tightly around the tufting yarn thereby providing a highly desirable loop lock. This effect is even further increased by heat sealing the polymer film to the intermediate layer, preferably after the tufting operation. If desired, an appropriate adhesive, cg. poly vinyl acetate, may also be used to join the intermediate layer and the polymer base member prior to tufting but this is not essential.

The product of the invention may be made on the conventional type of tufting machine wherein the tufting yarn is, in essence, sewed through the base material. In the present case, the jute fabric or other intermediate layer is superposed on the polymer film base member and the resulting laminate is fed into the tufting needles.

The invention and its advantages are illustrated by the following examples:

Example I A 10 ounce woven jute fabric was superposed on a self-supporting film of conventional polyethylene (the product known as Visqueen of the Visking Company). The jute fabric was about .05 inch thick and the polyethylene film about .008 inch thick.

The resulting laminate was fed into a conventional tufting machine (is. the so-called Supertufter) and tufted with viscose rayon tufting yarn, the jute fabric representing the top layer. The tufted product was then passed face up over a heated roller (about 260 F.) to heat seal the polyethylene base to the jute.

The heat sealed product was washed and dried, then examined. No significant amount of fraying was observed 3 along the cut edges and the hand or feel of the product was also outstanding. Loop lock was outstandingly better than that obtainable on controls prepared in the absence of the polymer base with or without conventional latex backing binder.

Example 11 The process of Example I was repeated except that the polyethylene film Was replaced by a vinyl resin film (the plasticized polyvinyl chloride film Krene of Union Carbide Plastics Company) of .004" thickness. The resultsobtained were equally outstanding.

The tufted product of the invention is illustrated inthe accompanying drawing whereinFIGURE 1 is a perspective view and FIGURES 2 and 3 are vertical sectional views otthe product, before and after heat sealing, respec tively. As shown therein, the numeral 1 represents the polymer film base; 2 the intermediate layer of jute fabric or the like; vand 3 the tufted-yarn; It will be noted from a comparison of the laminates of FIGURES 2 and 3 that heat sealing of the product by passing-same'over heated rollers 4 plasticizes the polymer and causes same to flow into existing voids and around the tufting yarn thereby efiecting a highly increased loop bind.

It will be appreciated that various modifications may be made inthe invention described herein. For example, thefilmxmay be embossed or creped in order to provide increased flexibility or strength. The foregoing description, therefore, is not intended to limit the invention, the scope of which is defined in the attached claim wherein I claim:

A method of making a tufted fabric comprising: providing a base layer of at least one normally selfsupporting thermoplastic polymer film, superimposing on said film at least one intermediate normally self-supporting layer of fibrous material having a thickness about 5-25 times that of said polymer film; passing tufting yarn back and forth through the polymer film base and the intermediate layer oi. fibrous material; extending the tufting yarn above the intermediate layer to form a tufted surface; andheating the resulting product to heat seal the intermediate layer to the base and to lock the tufting yarn.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,226,631 Miller Dec. 31, 1940 2,480,984 Issum Sept. 6, 1949 2,548,029 Kurz et al. Apr, 10, 1951 2,671,494 Coulliette Mar. 9, 1954 2,713,012 Hartstein July 12, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS 610,390 Great Britain Oct. 14, 1948 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent N00 3 O75,867 January 29, 1963 Douglas Co Cochran It is hereby certified that error appears in the above numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as corrected below.

In the heading to the printed speeificatiom lines 3 and 4, for "0/0 Southern Latex Corp, Y Park St, W Austell' Gag," read 59 East Lane Madison No JO Signed and sealed this 3rd day of September 1963 (SEAL) Attest:

ERNEST w. SWIDER DAVID L D Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents 

